NABC Chapter 372: Deepheue Mantis
Chapter 372: Deepheue Mantis
Vale intentionally added a flare to his landing, showing off while driving them back. "Eirikr, it’s truly been a while."
The Akatsuki Clan leader watched him with a hateful glare, his eyes darkened and brooding, his gaze severe. A storm of desert sand was raging behind him. "Vale, how is it that you are alive and even here to torment me? You should have remained dead."
Even though he said such words, Vale could see the uneasiness in his eyes as he stared at him. Vale shook his head. "How can I die in peace with your dirty hands in my territory? How can I, when I’ve not seen you dead? Surely you jest, Eirikr Akatsuki."
"Vale....you slippery bastard! How dare you betray us? The gall!" Vaelros hissed, her mouth flashing with dark fangs. A long tail that ended in a barbed point waved behind her. "Right from the beginning you have been planning this!"
Vale turned to her. "Actually, my intention was to hire you, but to think that you have amassed such an impressive force. I had no intention of betraying you. Besides, didn’t you promise to aid me here? And you’re already doing just that."
Kaelthorn was visibly displeased, although it didn’t show that much on his face. His body was covered in a green shell, his limbs abnormally long, and his elbows down ended in blades that shone with abnormally bright light. "You have no intention of betraying us and yet we are in this situation. But it’s nothing to our plan. At most, you’re aware that you’re our slave. Nothing still changes. We will defeat the Akatsuki here, and fortunately you already killed that WaterLord. Things are falling into place."
Vale gave him a strange look. "Company Captain Kaelthorn....I killed the WaterLord. Really, are you so arrogant that you did not see it? I killed her....why won’t I kill you? Are you stronger than her?"
His eyes widened and Kaelthorn almost took a step back. His mouth opened and closed. "Wait...."
"Fools. Did I not kill a Company Captain earlier? Do you think it happened by mistake? Things are indeed falling into place, but are they falling as you want?"
Kaelthorn’s body trembled, something that was shared between the three of them. "But how? I can’t sense an artifact...how are you this strong? Your Core is only Errant Knight!"
Vale smiled brightly. "Company Captain Kaelthorn, why don’t you find out for yourself what I’m holding?"
The two stared at each other. The tension between them was somehow different from that of those other Master Knights. He sneered. "Did you kill Isolde?"
Eh?
Vale blinked carefully at him and then he realized. Didn’t Isolde say they were lovers or something at one point in time? Then it’s no surprise that he had been behaving weirdly since he saw them together. "She’s not dead."
"Will you kill her?"
Vale answered calmly. "Yes, I will."
Their eyes locked and without hesitation they flew at each other, the air rippling from their passing. Fire and green light clashed, sending waves of shockwaves through the air.
Eirikr looked at the two fighters with scorn and then his eyes settled on the two Master Knights still facing him. And he gave them a dark look. Howling wind rose up behind him, sand and wind mixing, turning into a storm that blasted forward.
The two Master Knights seemed used to it, but this time there weren’t three of them to hold it. The storm hit them like a wall and for some seconds they held against it before they were blasted back.
Eirikr flew into the storm, his presence blending well within it. The Matsumoto Clans are Beastmasters as they almost always get the Prime Order marks. Their techniques are weird and strange. Most of them cultivate techniques that let them monsterize the beasts they are based on, gaining familiar techniques and power, refining and advancing it. And yet, some of them tame beasts to be used in battle. And some of the beasts have been mutated into monstrosities.
Earlier, when the battle first started and Master Knights burst out of the Matsumoto’s ship, his drake went out to fight only to fall into the hands of a tamed beast.
Inside the storm, Eirikr wasn’t held back by the sand or wind and he could see clearly as if nothing was obstructing him. But out of the two Master Knights, he saw only one. The woman with the tail, as she leaned forward to shield against the storm.
Eirikr swept through, his senses mixed with the storm, searching even faster. He did not find him.
Quickly, without hesitation, he began a new technique. The sands flying around began to form and then mold into large stones as big as humans. Carried by the angry wind, they buzzed with bone-shaking vibration, adding to the terrible sound of the storm.
He sent three of such stones at the woman at high speed and watched with satisfaction as they collided with the horrible crunching sound of bones snapping.
He kept the rest of the stones rotating around himself. Then he expanded the storm, sending it to begin sweeping the palace to start killing enemies, but the moment he started he suddenly froze, his attention held by something he felt.
The woman he had just at least wounded was standing there again within his storm and there wasn’t a single wound on her. His eyes pierced through and he saw her grinning at him.
She mouthed, "Got you!"
Just as she said that, he felt multiple presences, all belonging to the woman. They were all looking in his direction with vicious grins.
Eirikr’s eyes narrowed. "Clones? So that’s why she was standing there in the open. But no matter, you’ve shown yourself. The only real problem is the one in hiding."
Without hesitation he sent the stones around him blasting through the storm like diving comets.
Meanwhile, Vale and Kaelthorn were locked in battle. His sword flashed several times as he used it on the man, but Kaelthorn seemed uncut each time as if he couldn’t be cut!
His two bladed hands were like quicksilver, darting forward and back in a flash, each wound light and yet drawing blood. The man himself was fast, faster than Vale.
Vale was forced to create distance between them, his eyes narrowed as he used his essence to heal himself.
Kaelthorn laughed. His legs were a blur, sending different afterimages into the air with each movement. "What’s the use of all your powers if you can’t catch me? My beast is called the Deepheue Mantis. It’s one of the fastest insect beasts. You think you can fight me and win?"
Indeed, Vale was finding it continuously annoying. The man had struck him up to three times and he couldn’t even land a single solid hit. Each time he hit him, the attack just slid off his shiny shell.
And long-range attacks were even more pathetic because they wouldn’t touch him at all, always a step away!
Vale was stronger than him and yet he was the one getting wounded!
"You know I also learned how to use swords. I must learn, right? If I am to use these hands in this form. It’s even easier for me. You see, Deepheue Mantises are born with the inherent advantage of cutting things. It’s in their blood!"
Vale scoffed as he used his essence to heal the tiny cut on his face. And even though right now he looked relaxed, his red eyes were fixed on the green blur that was Kaelthorn, not letting a single movement out of his sight.
Kaelthorn continuously moved, creating afterimages to confuse him, but Vale’s red eyes were locked on him and he saw through it. "You call all of these cuts sword work?"
"Hehehehe! What do you know, Vale Athrimir?"
At that moment, due to the fact that Vale was following his movement, he realized when something changed within Kaelthorn. He saw it as the man stepped more forcefully on the ground instead of running as if he were on thin ice.
Kaelthorn crossed the distance as usual as if to deliver a light strike, but his left leg was planted solidly and his whole body twisted with the swing, his hand emitting a brilliant green light.
Whoosh!
Vale had been waiting for something like this and the formation in his mind primed. Immediately he saw the change and had begun creating it.
Hellfire Moon!
Directly in front of Kaelthorn!
Time seemed frozen. The expression on Kaelthorn flickered, but he was already committed and even for him, it was impossible to change direction. And yet he smiled.
At the same time that Vale created the Hellfire Moon, he also began to shift back, creating space and a shield in front of him.
He saw as Kaelthorn’s bladed hand emitted even more light that climbed higher and higher!
And then his sword reached the Hellfire Moon that was ready to be touched and explode. His bladed hand simply cut the Hellfire Moon into two!